Manly Soccer Ads Attract Huge Female Viewerships

NYT: “Ladies, the wait is over,” the narrator says, as video of players like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Javier Hernández, Iker Casillas, Fabian Johnson and Gonzalo Higuaín fills the screen, mostly in slow motion. “The perfect man is arriving. Athletic. Sensitive. Devoted. Talented. Passionate. Nothing can stop him. He strives to get my attention. Very soon, we’ll admire the perfection of those men who give it all for love.”

Univision’s strategies, including the one linking soccer to the steaminess of telenovelas, appear to have worked. Weekday World Cup viewership for women 18 to 49 has soared by 74 percent, to 646,000, from the audience for regular shows carried in the four weeks before the tournament.